Pivoted chain guide and corner sprocket stripper for boring type mining machine



Feb. 11, 1958 SMITH V PIVOTED CHAIN GUIDE AND CORNER SPROCKET STRIPPER FOR BORING TYPE MINING MACHINE Filed NOV. 29, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENT'OR Herman E. Smfth ATTORNEY 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Q INVENTOR.

Herman E. Smith Figs BY 4 ATTOR/L/EY Feb. 11, 1958 h. E. SMITH 2,823,022

PIVUi'ElJ CHAIN GU LJ CORNER OCKET I I STRIPPER FOR BOR E MINING CHINE Filed Nov. 29, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 QC I IN VEN TOR.

I Herman E.Smith Flg- 4: I I 4K ,4 T TORNEY Feb. 11, 1958 H. E. SMITH 2 PIVOTED CHAIN GUIDE AND CORNER SPROCKET STRIPPER FOR BORING TYPE MINING MACHINE Filed NOV. 29, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN V EN TOR.

Hrman ESmiIh A T TORNE V CHINE Herman E. Smith, Park Forest, Ill., assignor to Goodman Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Application November 29, 1955, Serial No. 549,631 4 Claims. (Cl. 262-7) This invention relates generally to boring type continuous mining machines and particularly to an improved chain guide and corner sprocket stripper therefor.

The type of continuous mining machine with which the present invention is concerned employs two or more transversely spaced boring assemblies which cut a plurality of bores, which may overlap, into a mine face. To smooth off the cusps at floor and roof levels, between the bores, a cutter chain is trained along the top and bottom of the machine, tangent to the bores. This structure includes a horizontal cutter bar at the floor level, and another at the roof level, each having a corner sprocket at each end thereof to feed the chain into and out of the cutter bar.

In order to facilitate backing the miner out of a room which it has cut, the corner sprockets are pivotally mounted, usually upon the adjacent end of one of the cutter bars, so that it can be folded inward to an out-ofthe-way position. The present invention relates to an improved guide for that part of the cutter chain between a corner sprocket and a corresponding end of its cutter bar.

There are three important features and objects of the improved chain guide and stripper made in accordance with the present invention as follows:

(a) It provides additional outward and forward bearing pressure against the portion of the chain between the cutter bar and the corner sprocket while the machine is cutting forward in a mine face;

(b) It strips the chain off of the corner sprocket at the proper cutter bar level when the chain is feeding into the cutter bar and, conversely, it feeds the chain onto the corner sprocket at the proper level when the chain is-moving in the opposite direction, the stripper being of such configuration as to effectively bridge the gap between the cutter bar and the sprocket; and

Dirt is stripped cleanly from the corner sprocket to prevent build-up of dirt beneath the chain, and the entire guide including a dirt stripping device and a chain stripping device is pivotally mounted with the corner sprocket such that the guide can be disengaged from the chain and swung to an out-of-the-way position.

Other objects and advantages will be described in connection with the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a front end view, partially sectioned, of a boring type miner illustratinga preferred form of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged view of Fig. 1 which shows in better fashion the pivoted chain guide and corner sprocket stripper with which the present'invention is concerned;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 except showing the corner sprocket moved upward and inward to its retracted position;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view of Fig. 2 taken along the line 4-4;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of Fig. "2 taken along the line 5-5;

States Patent ice Fig. 6 is a side view of Fig. 2 taken in the direction of the arrows 66; and

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary, simplified, perspective view of Fig. 2.

Like parts are designated by like reference characters in the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a cutting and dislodging apparatus of a continuous miner of the general type as is disclosed in Ogden Patent 2,719,710, dated October 4, 1955, for Improvements in Pusher Plate Operating Mechanism for Continuous Miners. The boring head shown in Fig. 1 is referred to generally by the reference numeral 10, and includes a gear or drive housing 11 having extending therefrom hubs 12 enclosing shafts 13 to which are secured boring arms 14. The two boring arms 14 are arranged to rotate in opposite directions in timed relationship to cut a pair of overlapping contiguous bores in a seam of mineral 16 such as coal or the like.

The action of the boring arms 14 is such as to leave behind upper and lower cusps, not shown. In order to remove such cusps, endless cutter bearing chains are arranged to move along main upper and lower cutter bars or guides having direction changing means for said cutter chains in this figure shown as idler sprockets mounted at each end thereof, so that in addition to cutting the cusps, the cutter chains cut a substantially rectangular bore in the room.

To this end the gear housing 11 has mounted on the forward face thereof a pair of hydraulic cylinders 17 havingextending therefrom piston rods 18. An upper chain guide 19 is mounted at the upper ends of the piston rods 18 and is arranged to guide an endless chain indicated by the reference numeral 21. The lower run of the chain 21 is guided along a main lower chain guide or bar 23 which is movable up and down in a vertical plane by means of piston rods 22 in cylinders 22 also mounted on the forward wall of the gear housing 11.

The lower chain guide 23 has movable therewith deflector plates 24 which move in telescoping relationship with fixed deflector plates 26 mounted on the gear housing 11. The deflector plates 24 are arranged to deflect cuttings into a throat 27, the cuttings being carried from thethroat 27 by means of an endless flight conveyor 28 as seen in Fig. l.

The endless cutter chain 21 is arranged to be driven by a sprocket 31 and tensioned by a sprocket 29, being mounted respectively on shafts 33 and 32 extending from a forward wall of the housing 11. Each of the chain guides 19 and 23 has, mounted at each end thereof, direction changing means for the cutter chain, in this case being a corner idler sprocket 34, each sprocket being supported on an arm 36 which is pivotable about a pin 37 carried in a terminal extension 37a of the chain guide. Each arm 36 is pivotally connected substantially midway of the length thereof to a link 38 which in turn is connected pivotally to a link 39 hingedly anchored on a pin 41 carried on'another, transverse, extension 50a of the chain guide. Thus the pair of links 38, 39 comprise a toggle. The toggle is actuated to move the corner sprocket in and out by an actuating cylinder 42 which is pivotally connected at 43 to another transverse extension 44 of the cutter chain guide. Each cylinder 42 has a piston rod 46 which is pivotally connected at 47, approximately midway of the link 39, and so arranged that when the piston rod 46 is withdrawn intothe cylinder 42, the sprocket 34 will be rocked toa collapsed position.

For simplicity, the present invention will be described in connection with the'lower cutter bar 23 but may be applied tothe upper cutter bar 19 if desired. The pusher plate mechanism, shown in the lowerleft-hand corner of 3 Fig. l, is described in detail in the above-mentioned Ogden Patent 2,719,710 and will not be described herein as it forms no part of the present invention.

Referring now specifically to the present invention, an improved pivotal chain guide and stripper is'here shown as an auxiliary chain guide section, generally designated 8%, and mounted on the forward side of each of the corner sprocket supporting arms 36 at the ends of the lower cutter bar 23. Only the member in at the lower right-hand corner of Fig. 1 and the subsequent drawings, will be described in detail here because the arrangement on the lower left-hand corner of Fig. 1 is identical except for leftand righthand configurations.

The auxiliary chain guide section 80 includes a horizontal guide plate 81, having its inner edge fixed, as by welding, to the pivoted arm 36, and also overlapping and welded to a horizontal plate 82, welded as at 84, along the bottom of said arm (see Figure 4). An upright chain back-up plate 33 is welded along the lower face of the guide plate 81 forwardly of the plate 82. Said guide plate 81 has a depending rib 51a along; its front edge, and a groove 86 rearwardly of said rib, within which is mounted a hardened liner 8?, held in place by a bolt 38a. The front end of the guide plate 81 and the back up plate 83 together form a guide member for the cutter chain, generally of inverted L-shape in crosssection, but open at the bottom to permit. the auxiliary chain guide to be swung toward and away from the. fully collapsed position shown in Figure 3, without binding on the chain.

Each of the corner sprockets 34 is shown asia doubletoothed structure and, as shown in Fig. 2, includes. two separate sets of sprocket teeth 34a, and 34b with a cylindrical spacing surface 34c therebetween. The. upper plate portion 81 has a narrow relatively resilient, right-hand portion or finger 88 extending into the space between. the teeth 34a, 34b. This is somewhat deflectable, as compared with the main body of the member. 3t and it. therefore forms a relatively resilient backing for the shoe 87 whose end portionis curved up over it in a location. between the teeth. Thus, as the chain moves from the corner sprocket to the cutter bar 23, or viceversa, iinpacts between the chain blocks 89, 91 and the member 89 (due to the fact that the chain rotates. about the sprocket as a polygon and not a smooth are). will tend to be absorbed by this resilient finger 8S. and will eliminate troubles previously encountered: inbreakage ofiparts due to repeated impact.

An important function of the liner 87 and its resilient backing finger 88, in. addition to the impact absorption above-mentioned, isthat it servesto strip.- the chain from the sprocket at the proper level. to feed directly intothe cutter bar 23 whenthe corner sprocket of Fig. 2 is.turna ing clockwise; when it; is. turning c.ounterclockwise;. the liner 87 operates in reverse by feeding the chain out smoothly onto the sprocket. The liner 87 furthermore functions at times to strip off detritus which may cling tov the cylindrical surface 340 between the teeth.

The forward face of the vertical plate 83. is. provided with a recess 92 within which is held, by means of screw 93, a hardened wear strip S i: which. carries the thrust when the head is buried in a mine face. 7

It will be noted that. the pivotal guide member 86) exerts an outward supporting pressure-on the cutter chain through the wearing plate 87 and a forward suPP Iting pressure through. the- Wearing; plate 94. The bottom of the member 89, as best seen inFig. 4, is completely open and the reason for this is so. that the guide. Stlcanbe pivoted out of engagement with. the chain without binding as. would be the case if guide had a bottom wallsprocket teeth, and terminates in very close proximity to the cylindrical surface 34c so as to maintain the latter constantly wiped free of detritus which will be carried around the sprocket and which otherwise would. eventually build up between the chain and the sprocket and, either stretch the chain to the point of breakage, or run it off the. sprocket; By mounting the stripper 96 directly atop the member 80, and in line with the surface 34c which is to be stripped, great strength is introduced so that the stripper finger is practically indestructible; and the. stripper will. move up. and down with the sprocket since they are both, in effect, carried by the rocker arm 3.6;

I claim:

1. In cutting and dislod'ging apparatus for modifying the cross-section of a passage cut by a mining machine, a cutter chain, a main guide along which said cutter chain is movable, direction changing means for said cutter chain spaced from one end portion of said main guide, auxiliary guide means including a relatively resilient portion disposed in bearing engagement with the chain between the guide and direction changing means for training the chain in a path aligned with said main guide and tangent with said direction changing means.

2. In cutting and dislodging apparatus for modifying the cross-section of a passage cut by a mining machine, a frame, acutter bearing. chain, a. mainguide on said frame along-whichsaid cutter chain is movable, direction changing'mea-ns for said cutter chain on said frame spaced from one end of saidmain guide, linkage means supporting said direction changing means for movement between an extended position anda coliapsed position relative to said mainguide, and an auxiliary chain guide mounted on said Iinkagemeans between said main guide and direction changing means and movable with said linkage-means said auxiliary guide being open along its outer side toprovide auxiliarysupportfor the inner and rear sides of said chain in alignment with'said main guide when said direction changing means is in extended position, but permitting freedom of outward" movement of said chain in intermediate positions of movement of said linkage means.

3. In cutting and dislodging apparatus for a. mining machine including a portable frame, a cutter bearing chain carried by said frame, a horizontal main guide along which said cutter chain is movable, direction changing means for said cutter chain adjacent one end of said main guide, linkage means pivotally supporting said direction changing means formovement from aligned relation with said mainguide to a collapsed relation toward the frame, an auxiliary guide mounted on andmovable with said linkage means into and out of aligned supporting engagement with the portion of said cutter chain between the main guide and the direction changing means; said auxiliary guide having a. first bearing surface engageable with the inner side of said chain, and a second bearing surface engageable with the back of the chain, leaving an open outer side opposite said first bearing surface to permit slackin the chain when the linkage is in intermediate collapsed positions.

4. Ina mining machine having a portable frame with a pair of boring heads rotatable about spaced parallel axes for cutting contiguous bores in advance of the machine, a main guide extending horizontally between said boring heads carrying a cutterchain for removing a cusp between the bores cut bysaid heads, a direction changing sprocket for said chain, an arm on which said sprocket is rotatablymounted, said arm being pivotaily mounted at one end' of said guide for movement from an extended position in which the outer periphery of the sprocket is in horizontal alignment with said main guide into a collapsed position wherein the sprocket is swung toward the frame, and an auxiliary chain guide fixed on said arm in 6 position to guide the chain in alignment between said References Cited in the file of this patent main guide and the outer periphery of said sprocket when UNITED STATES PATENTS the arm and sprocket are in extended positlon, sa1d auxiliary chain guide being open along its outer side to 2719710 Ogden 1955 permit slack in the chain when the arm and sprocket are 5 2,766,979 Calder 161 1956 collapsed positions. 

